IL lawmakers consider borrowing to pay bills

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 04:15:25 CSTBy: IPR

A group of Illinois Democrats is pushing legislation that would authorize borrowing four-billion dollars to help pay off the state's backlog of bills. Judith Gethner represents hundreds of groups that contract with the state to provide "human services," like taking care of foster children, people with disabilities, and victims of domestic violence. Illinois is months behind in paying such providers. Gethner says the state is essentially taking out a loan from THEM:

Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

"There are hundreds of thousands of small businesses out there that are owed money. And it was not on their backs, that we should be borrowing. And we believe this should be on the state."
But Republicans says Illinois cannot borrow its way out of debt. Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka says it would be like someone drowning in debt deciding to apply for new credit cards.